In my rounds as a county commissioner, I get to talk to a lot of people. Different towns. Different politics. Different backgrounds.
But I hear the same uneasy sentence in a hundred different forms:
Things just ain’t what they used to be.
Then, almost immediately, we apologize for saying it.
Because somebody is always standing nearby ready to explain that this is called “progress,” and apparently progress means you’re supposed to smile politely while the thing you loved gets turned into luxury apartments and a parking app.
Every small town has a big day.
In my beloved Johnstown, it’s BBQ Daze. Milliken has Beef ’N Bean Day. Frederick has Miners Day. Fort Lupton has Trapper Days. Across Colorado, towns have these wonderfully specific little traditions that make absolutely no sense to outsiders.
That’s the point.
Years ago in Johnstown, the fire department would roll through neighborhoods early in the morning, sirens going, loudspeaker blaring, waking everybody up for the Fireman’s Pancake Breakfast.
Jarring? Sure.
Also awesome.
Then somebody complains, somebody worries, somebody writes a policy, and one more little piece of local weirdness disappears.
Which brings me to Manitou Springs, where grown adults dress in costumes and push coffins down Manitou Avenue.
God bless Colorado.
The Emma Crawford Coffin Races started in 1995 and now draw more than 10,000 people to a town of fewer than 5,000. Earlier this year, Manitou Springs Police Chief Bill Otto told the City Council his department simply did not have enough officers to safely staff an event that large. Some council members talked about pausing the races altogether.
And here is where I need to update the good news.
They didn’t bury the coffin races.
In June, the council approved hiring 15 additional Colorado Rangers for the 2026 event at a reported cost of $9,600, with funding coming from city money, Visit Manitou Springs and fundraising. Council members said unequivocally the races would not be canceled. (krdo.com)
The official event site now lists the 32nd annual races for October 24, 2026. They’re free, race registration is open, and Manitou will once again be Manitou. (manitousprings.org)
Good.
Because this is the part of Colorado growth we need to get better at.
When something becomes successful, the answer cannot always be: pause it, regulate it into oblivion, shrink it until nobody comes, or smother it beneath enough risk memos that eventually everybody forgets why they cared.
Public safety is real. Ten thousand people, alcohol, narrow streets and limited police staffing are real problems. Pretending otherwise isn’t common sense.
But they are problems to solve, not automatic reasons to surrender.
That’s what Manitou ultimately did.
And maybe there’s a lesson there for the rest of us.
New people discovering Colorado is not inherently bad. I understand why Tech Bro bought the Jeep, found the craft beer, went “Coloradoing” and posted the whole thing on Instagram. He found something cool.
We knew it was cool too.
The challenge is welcoming people without sanding off everything that made the place worth discovering.
Growth requires roads, cops, money, planning and adult decisions. It also requires remembering that a community is more than buildings, tax base and professionally branded “vibrancy.”
Sometimes it’s sirens before pancakes.
Sometimes it’s Beef ’N Bean Day.
And sometimes it’s five lunatics hurtling down a street with a coffin.
Protect the people.
Manage the crowd.
Solve the hard problems.
But for heaven’s sake, Colorado, don’t become so good at managing growth that we accidentally manage away our soul.
Source: The Gazette
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